Hoda Kotb is getting candid about her fears when it comes to daughter Hope’s Type 1 diabetes battle.
“Everyone’s got something,” the former Today anchor, 62, told USA Today in an interview published on Tuesday, September 29. “I worry about my youngest daughter, who has diabetes. I am concerned. I go to sleep, I watch my phone all night to see what her numbers are doing. I wake up and see. That’s just constant. That is how it is.”
Kotb shared that she’s learned ways to cope through her wellness brand, Joy 101, and the company’s annual retreats. (The latest fall retreat, hosted at The Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida, ran from Friday, September 25, to Sunday, September 27.)
“I can go in there and do a breathwork [session] and release everything I’m carrying. And now I go back to Hope and [daughter] Haley, tank full, let’s go,” she explained. “But we’re all caring for someone who needs a lot of stuff, or we’re going through life stuff, and I just feel like get on your knees and then go climb the mountain!”
Kotb shares Hope, 7, and Haley, 9, with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman. The pair dated for eight years before announcing their split in January 2022.
Kotb revealed Hope’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis in May 2025, calling her younger daughter a “trooper” for having to deal with insulin injections and blood sugar monitoring.
“It’s kind of constant care for Hope. We’re monitoring her 24/7,” she told People at the time. “She was getting shots — four or five a day — every day for a year. Now she is getting them less frequently because we have some other means to get her what she needs, but there’s a lot to it. Some kids can have sweets and she can’t. If she’s up in the night, we have to take care of her at night.”
Despite her health struggles, Kotb said Hope is a “happy, healthy, rambunctious, amazing kid, and we have to watch her.”
She added, “Diabetes is a part of her, but not all of her. I hope it shapes her but never defines her.”
Hope’s diagnosis played a role in Kotb’s decision to leave the Today show after 17 years in January 2025.
“I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over her. So, whenever she needs anything, and it can happen at night, multiple times, I’m up — I’m up up up,” Kotb explained. “But I would never, ever want Hope to one day grow up and say, ‘Oh, my mom left her job because [of me].’ It wasn’t that alone. But if you look at it cumulatively, it was a part of that decision.”
Kotb also shared an update on Hope’s health battle with Us in May 2025.
“She’s definitely found her sea legs and we’re learning how to manage her diabetes,” she said. “I feel like a lot of parents and families go through it. When the kids are little, it’s hard. They want what they want and it’s difficult.”
